Welcome to Action Solves Everything, the show for those who want to stop overthinking and start producing. I'm your host, Alex Montagano, broker, leader, and founder of Lockstep Realty. Around here, we believe movement creates momentum, clarity comes from doing, and the agents who take action are the ones who win. Every episode is built to help you grow your skills, your confidence, and your career. Now, let's get to work. Welcome to another episode of Action Solves Everything. I got an awesome guest on the show today. He is the only vendor to ever walk into my office, ice cold, no relationship, and walk out with a business partnership within, call it seven days. Dustin McKibben, owner and founder of Art Home Photo. What's up, man? How's It's going well, Alex. I can't complain. Woke up my daughter's last day of preschool, so I got to see her perform this morning and Home all summer, yeah. We'll have one week where they're all at different camps, but other than that, busy, I cut out of work earlier, early in the week, earlier this week. It was like early in the day. And my wife's like, what are you doing? And I was like, man, I'm home. I don't have any pressing projects. I'm just going to take like a mental break. And she goes, enjoy the peace and quiet when you can. Um, it's almost gone again. And my kids are done with school next week, next Friday's their last day. And I was like, holy shit. I totally forgot about it. So, um, this whole concept of like occasionally working from home is like back out Yes. Yeah. And it's a work-life balance goes out the door, uh, Yeah. We'll talk about that. So 2017, you jump in, you build our home photo, you launched off the ground. You're So yeah, it started as a, as a hobby, a side hustle. Um, my wife and I moved from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne. Um, she decided she wanted to be a doctor, terrible decision. Um, and I thought, Oh, I'm going to be a stay at home dad, just taking pictures here and there. Um, at the time, my wife and I had a successful wedding photography business that helped, you know, keep the bills paid while she was in, uh, medical school, grad school, all that. And then fast forward, we decide to build a home, a beautiful 5,000 square foot home here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which to those of you listening that aren't in Indiana, you might think, holy shit, what does this guy do for a living? But Indiana is a very affordable place to live, especially Fort Wayne. And we build this beautiful home move in twenty nineteen and i kinda looked at real estate is like if i shoot a house that pays for crown molding in my kitchen if i shoot two houses i don't have to have hollow corridors if i shoot three houses i could put carpet in the basement just became this game of like how many houses can i do how many relationships can i have. What people and serve them so that you know i can just make my family's dream home that much nicer. And then, like many of us, 2020 came and the whole world shut down. And my next door neighbor, who happens to run Coldwell Banker here in Northeast Indiana, was like, well, Dustin, why don't you just go all in on real estate? And he's like, you've been doing it really great for the last two, three years. Just put all your eggs in that basket. And I was like, is there enough business to go around that I could support my family? And so yeah, we went all in. And here we are, several years later, and we have a team of about 25. And Yeah. Man, there's like, it's so interesting. Are you always wired up as like an all in guy? Or was that like a hard thing No, I'm always all in. For example, my dad said I had to go to college for engineering. My mom said, I really want you to go to school for photography. I said, all right, I'll find the only college in the country that offers photographic engineering. and went to school in New York. Little did I know at the time what a big deal that was. I was young and naive and just wanted to take pretty pictures and could have gone to work for like a satellite company or Google. But here Well, look, I think here we are. But entrepreneurship and building something that's your own is it's not for everybody, but for those that it is for, it's all Yeah, it's hard. We could do a whole podcast on how an entrepreneur's brain is wired, but it's hard for people like you and I to have mundane conversations with people because my brain is always like, well, how could you do that better? How could you sell more of X to stay home more with your family? I'm always trying to figure out How i can help level up other people's businesses almost like game of entrepreneurship. Give you a story in high school buddy of mine and i saw how much we're paying the dj to do like the proms and stuff. And we were like, wow, that's ridiculous. You're paying $400 to pay a guy to play CDs. Um, and so we told the student council, like for three 75, we got this, we'll take care of this. Keep in mind, Alex, I'm pretty old. So I live in a world before computers. And so we, we were ripping subs out of the back of buddy's cars. We went to what was it called back then? Like staples or whatever to buy like the first like Dell computer. So we could like. But like, we were just jerry rigging MacGyver in this whole, like DJ setup, buying speakers from Guitar Center, and then returning them on Monday. So that we could, you know, we had such, and we didn't know anything about speakers, we had speakers so big, they blew the power in the high school gymnasium. But we were like, we'll figure it out. Like, because like you were saying, I go all in on an idea. And we're gonna make it the best damn thing Also, your school student council could save $25. That's what That DJ business is still going to this day, by the way. It's pivoted into a port-a-john business, which is another conversation. Yeah. Um, I think what's interesting and you talk about it is as somebody that has like, my whole life is gamified into business. Um, I have a friend on our team and she gives me a hard time of like, do you have hobbies? And I was like, um, man, that hurts because I'm not sure I do, but like, this is, these are the things I do all the time. And like, this is what drives my brain. Um, it, you become, it becomes hard to become relatable with others. And so what I've noticed even is like, When I go to like family gatherings and stuff, it's like hard to get into the conversation that people want to have, whether it's like whatever it could be about, because my brain is just always on about like, what's the next business thing? Or what's the, how do you improve? Or like, what things can you share? Like, what's the market like? And that's just become a thing for me. So I, like, I totally get Yeah. Like even, um, so I had that same conversation with my wife last year. She's like, I really need you to get a hobby and do something. And she's like, you should pick something that the kids are into and like, just go all in with them on that. And again, she said the words all in, but I don't think she quite understood me all in and that all in. So my oldest daughter is into Pokemon cards. And so I jumped all in. We started now vending at card shows on the weekends. We have an Instagram channel. Oh my gosh. We've got people from all over the world reaching out to us about our stuff. Um, so it's like, she's like, I, okay, Dustin, I said, go all in like something you could do for fun. I didn't say start another business. And I'm like, I don't know how to not Yeah. It's really interesting. It's like, you like zoom out as a business owner and like, look, I've got to give it to you. We meet ice cold, We agreed to a partnership on you guys delivering a product and a service for lockstep. And I look up six months later and it's like, you deliver on the promise. And so like, when you look at like everything else, like you do that so you can spend time with your daughter or your spend time with your wife or your family. And if Yeah, no. And like every aspect of our business has been built with the intentionality of creating frictionless experiences with our clients. So if there's ever like a moment where we feel friction, we're like, that's where I come in. I'm like, okay, we have to solve this. Cause like, we can't keep going over the same speed bump. Like the moment you go over like 50 speed bumps, you're like, all right guys, who's getting the shovels out? How do we get rid of the speed bump? And the same is true in business. I'm like, I want just buttery smooth transactions because I'm sure you know, like in a real estate transaction, there's always speed bumps and I don't want to be a part of that. I don't want to be one of those. I want the, I want my part, my small piece of Has it, um, has it always been that way for you or is Uh, so kind of going back through like the wedding photography process, like dealing with brides and feeling their stress and anxiety going through the wedding planning process, I kind of adapted that same mantra, that same mindset of like, Weddings are stressful enough. I want the photography to be the thing that you're like, oh my gosh, Dustin and his wife, they've got this. This is a piece I don't have to stress about. And so, I've been doing that for like 20 years. And so, then when I adopted into this world of real estate, I just like was a natural transition to do the exact same thing like realtor seems stressed all the time they were so busy they were always on the go i was like how can i make this process just so seamless so buttery i was on the phone with a realtor earlier talking about how their photographer gives a morning or an afternoon time slot they never know when they're coming i was like well that sounds like that would be impossible for you to schedule around your schedule no like yeah i don't get it i'm like So we've never operated like that. You know exactly when our photographer is going to be there, unless of course the property is vacant or, you know, we have a lockbox or what have you. But, you know, we're very communicative with our clients because we know how much that matters. And so we try to figure out where things matter What would you say if somebody said, What is the number one differentiator between you guys and the next guy? What would you say that Yeah, I don't even have to think about that. So what separates us from every other media partner, every other marketing partners, no one is going to care more about your business than us. Like your success is ultimately our success. Like when lockstep does more deals, you know, we win. And so like every real estate, you know, transaction, I want to run into a homeowner that says they saw one of our little brightly colored Priuses zipping around their neighborhood and like, oh, I know that this house is going to have great marketing. Like I want that to be synonymous with your brand and with what you guys are doing. Cause when we elevate all things, real estate marketing lockstep elevates to one lockstep lockstep elevates it's, you know, listings we, you know, we just keep rising together. So I look for win-win situations and no one else thinks that way Um, can you talk about those Priuses? Cause I just saw them on Instagram a couple of weeks ago. It looks like you added a couple to your fleet and you were asking Yeah, so early on when we started, and it became more than just me, my photographer had a really junky car. And I was like, this is unacceptable to show up to a client's house. And so I bought him a, at the time, the most dependable car and gas prices were through the roof. And so now they're through the roof again, but here we go full circle. Uh, bought a Prius and it had like a bunch of like Bondo on it and just like had some body work, but it's all we could afford. And so I had a guy that was like, Hey, I could wrap that for you. And I was like, yeah, just go wild. Just make it look really cool. And he wrapped that thing to look like a race car. And so I was like, okay, I guess this is where we're going with this. And then I, yeah, we just kept the tradition going. Now we have, I think like nine or 10 of them. And they are zipping around all the roads of Indiana, just taking pictures. Realtors take selfies with them. Realtors use it as a way to let people know a house is coming on the market soon, but not showing the house. So it's been a cool thing. I get texts from real estate agents all the time. Hey, I see your car in my neighborhood. What's happening? What's going on? It kind of became a bit of a where's Waldo. Man, that is so cool. So I think one of the things I pick up is like, there's this passion for a heightened experience for whether it's like realtor or client involved in the transaction. I don't think that's always the case in any line of work. I'm working on some projects of my own right now, some remodels I'm doing. And the conversation I keep having with everybody is, well, that's just how the contractor business is. And I'm like, that is not, this is not, this is not acceptable or in any level of craft. So like when you talk about having pride in this type of stuff and it being something that you specialize in, What is it like, how are you infiltrating that stuff downward to photographers or your staff? And what is it like to work at Yeah, so really, it's just about having a servant's heart, like leading well. And we have bi weekly meetings with our entire team to kind of drill in sort of our core values into our team. So it's not just me saying, Hey, need to give a shit about our people. It's like, actually, like, they see me, like, I'm super passionate about, like, every relationship that we work with. And making sure that that trickles down to every aspect of what we do like every email that we send you know i tell my team like hey is that is that gonna be the best representation of us when that email goes out. Because ultimately like i always tell a story about an experience i had going through a chick fil a drive through. In college i went to college in new york as i mentioned and then driving back to indiana there is a chick fil a and you're in pennsylvania that i would always stop at. For lunch because one day and i was a poor college kid drove a little robin blue chevy cavalier. and would stop and there would always be a person in the Chick-fil-A drive-through that would wash my windshield. And I was like, holy shit, like I've never seen a restaurant been anywhere in my life where there's somebody out there in like a poncho or a raincoat with a bottle of, just a bottle of Windex and a squeegee is all this person had. It wasn't like they were running you through like Mike's Car Wash. Um, but it was like just blown away by the amount of customer support and service that that provided. And I was like, I want to adopt that mindset into every aspect of what I do, man. I think there's your world, our world all over the place. It's like this unique, um, interest in effort to care more in like what caring really means right so like we live in this society of business today where everybody has access to a lot of the same stuff and if you don't you'll have it in a second just scroll a little longer or look a little more in youtube or instagram or tiktok right and You know, I think about realtors in general, it's like if you look at what content creation has become, so much of content creation is not actually for the clients themselves. It's actually for the realtors and other realtors. It's like, why are you talking to your peers? Why aren't you focused on creating the best thing for your clients? And so, so much of what's created around experience, it's like, everybody has this, everybody has that. At the end, everybody does this for you. But like, what are your differentiating factors from your seat? And I think what's really awesome to hear is that like, you guys have a pretty crystal clear vision about what success at our home photo looks like, versus like, as somebody else that may say, our success is measured by metrics around how many photo shoots Yeah, yeah, I, I love celebrating the wins. Like for example, last year, the most expensive house in Northeast Indiana went up on the market. And we got to be just a small part of helping to like create all the marketing behind that the photos, the videos, the storytelling. And when that house sold i mean it was a huge milestone for this community and that we know like i was more excited for the realtor success and selling the seven million dollar home that i was for like us like shooting the photos i mean anyone could have shot the photos anyone could have shot the videos. I like that that realtor trusted us to come alongside them and then they're the ones on the news they're the ones like i don't need the spotlight because ultimately now that agents gonna get even more business because of that, that listing that transaction and that we can keep helping to serve them and then in return you know they Yeah, I will tell you, um, word of mouth is what, um, like pulled us together so fast. And, you know, you had walked in the door, we had a small pain at lockstep around photography. And part of it was like, um, the crew that we were utilizing at the time, they weren't, they didn't have the size to handle our capacity. And like, we grew fast and, you know, we grew at the seams everywhere and, When you came in the door, like it had been put on our plate as an issue. I knew it was an issue and it was like, well, here's a quick potential solution. And look, I sell how I want to be sold. Like I believe in that. And like you walked in, you hit me between the eyes with opportunity for solution and some, some cool stuff. And then out you went and every question I asked, it was like, here's all the people that use us. And every single person I called said the same thing. They're awesome. And there wasn't a single person I called. the best folks that would use you guys in Fort Wayne, Northeast Indiana. And everybody that we talked to said the same thing. And then I had one of my colleagues, Daniel, call Pierce-Henu, because he's from up there. And he went through and he called the Evan Rickeys and folks like that. And it's like, yep, awesome. Yes, awesome. Yes, yeah. And it was like, man, We think we have a problem. Here's the report on what a solution could be. We have a growing infrastructure. This makes life easier for us. And I think what I appreciate the most is when I go get feedback from staff, it's like, hey, how is this relationship working? And it's like, I think the feedback was outside of handling, having availability 24 seven for us at this point, they get everything right. And it's like, that's special, man. And it's not like you want to remove the speed bumps and make our experience frictionless. We've had more listings in 2026 than we've ever had. And it's easier for us to execute the photography aspect of that or the videography aspect of that than it's ever been. And so one like testament to you, like you're doing it and we are very appreciative of Hey, I'm very appreciative of you. I mean, if I can talk to the flip side of that conversation, just, you know, had several meetings, walk ins, just like that. And just the you were so like, fast to take action, like you saw a problem within your own organization. And then you saw an opportunity presented to you and that you were willing to jump on and try that out. I mean, I think we, we did like six or seven properties together, and kind of try, you know, tested the waters. And you're like no i think this is it this is where we're gonna do and we were just we dial the Yeah i think i'm look i think. A business lesson for anybody that's listening is like it is not always easy and it is not always fun. But you can always keep moving the ball forward and you know i read a blog every single week and i. I talk about one from when I was, when I played baseball at Butler in college and my, one of my college coaches had an email signature and the email signature said, if you don't quit, you win. And in college, I was like, man, this is so lame. Like that is no, you, if you score more runs than the other team, you win. And, you know, ignorantly, I didn't understand it and it didn't resonate with me, but a superpower that I have in my life today is that like, No matter how bad it ever is, or ever how good it ever is, if you keep going, It will keep getting better. You will get out of the darkness. You will survive the good times that, you know, aren't as good as you think they are, and you will outlast any bad times. And I think as a business person, an underrated thing is being able to show up every day and make decisions right, Yeah, totally. Yeah. Somebody said something to me yesterday that really hit home was sometimes some of the most beautiful things in life happen in the messy. And I think we're all looking for clean, we're looking for organized, we're looking for structured, but like business is very seldom like that. And so trying to look for the beauty and the positivity in the mess is sometimes what helps Well, you don't truly. good times mask all problems in business anyway. And so it's real easy to look at a metric and the vanity metrics like revenue and profitability and all that stuff. But look, if your operation sucks, or your team isn't happy, or your clients are unhappy, or you've got problems underneath the surface, you don't look at them until the bad times. And I think like, you know, is somebody that's always evaluating business and gamifying this. When it's good, why is it good? But what could be better? Or what are some pitfalls that are coming? It's really easy to drive past that and say, we penned it in another house or we signed another team to work with. But I believe true business is when Like it is the worst and you can still get out of bed and show up with a steel jaw, put it back together and just keep going. I couldn't agree with that stuff more. It's a it's it is Yeah, an exercise we do in our house, um, for any of the parents out there listening, if I can give you like a quick takeaway, that's been really helpful this year is so every night at bedtime, I've got three small children under the age of 10 and every night we all gather after story time or whatever. Can i ask each of them including my wife and i participate as well what are ten good things that happened today and you slowly build that habit, where they have to kind of repeat back and then they start to think through like now i pick them up from school and they say hey. Hey daddy i got to two good things that happened to reset your saving for tonight but it made their brain is now rewiring itself to look for positivity and look for good things that are happening in the world versus the world that we live in that's constantly trying to teach us to look for the bad the negative the wrong and i'm trying to teach them look for the good look for the beauty look for the awesome. And then, you know, slowly, you know, you build that muscle, and they're like, wow, you know, I did this good thing, or this person had this, and I'm like, awesome. And then that slow 10 from everybody or 10 total in a circle? 10 from each Uh, normally can rattle through it in about 15 minutes. I mean, we're not looking for, you know, paragraphs. I'm looking, you know, my kids are young, so something good will be like, I got to play in the sandbox. I got, I got, you know, a cookie instead of an apple at snack time. Like these are not like monumental things, but it's Man. I love this. I was, um, I'm having a hard time with a couple of things I'm working on in some of my other business endeavors I'm playing around with. I bumped into a buddy of mine and he's a real estate agent. He's one of the top guys in the city, Kyle Engel. If you've never met Kyle, he's fantastic. When I was talking to Kyle, we were just talking about it. Somehow we transitioned into parenting, and he's got a son who's playing baseball, and I was telling him how all of a sudden my daughter is really interested in going out and playing. And I was like, you know, every single time, no matter good or bad, she hits the tee, she knocks it over, she smiles and laughs, runs, picks it up, and puts it back and says, again, Dad, again. And he ties it back. And so like, all of a sudden we're talking about business and he's like, you knock the tea over, pick it up, smile and go again, dad. And it's like, it's such a good, like, I think kids teach more lessons to me than some of the books I listened to or the podcasts, but it's, um, it's Yeah, no, it's, it's, I think as, uh, being a parent is the biggest gift that you can have in your life because these little mutants are, uh, chromosomally, unless you adopt, uh, versions of yourself. So you get to see versions of yourself amplified, uh, in certain ways and you get to kind of work through your own shit through seeing them work through it in like the elementary school Yeah. My kids turn four in three weeks and it's just like a different adventure all the time. But yeah, the smaller version of yourself, reteaching you the same lessons that you need to relearn every day is exactly right. But let's talk a little bit about like, where are you guys headed? Like, what are some, you know, you guys care, you create frictionless experience for agents and for clients. Talk Yeah, so predominantly based in Northeast Indiana. So we serve, you know, Angola all the way down to now Indianapolis and beyond. Our goal is to scale within Indianapolis and help serve as many people in the indie market as possible. It's one of those things when we were building this business in Fort Wayne, it felt like We were doing just what felt natural to us and then when we came to india we felt like oh wait we have something pretty special here we're able to turn photos around same day we're able to get videos back next day we're able to make videos that look pretty awesome and do it in a very short window of time at a budget that is affordable for an agent to afford and make it repeatable so these are things that we thought were standard. And we're realizing pretty quickly upon conversations i've had with people in these bigger markets these are not standard these are these are abnormal and so we're trying to evangelize in some ways that you know what we have should be the normal and you know i've heard from others that several media companies are kind of trying to Dixon do things to now match what we're doing so it's kind of cool to see that you know we're also moving the needle in the city. I'm like we're a media company that gets recognized on a national scale i'm getting asked to speak on stages all the time about real estate marketing and marketing conventions and conferences so like i love. Learning all of that and then bringing it back and teaching all of our clients all of our photographers how we can move the needle and with a i. Constantly pushing things forward faster than we've ever imagined faster than either of us have ever seen. You know i get to be in a position now where i can develop a i tools that you know our real estate agents are gonna have access to you know we're kind of going back to what we talked about earlier frictionless experiences like you know photos should be standard i think by the end of this year video will be standard. So i'm looking ahead at the road map of like what are tools that we can equip our clients with so that they can even win more weather that's you know a i automations weather that's a i. You know websites what whatever that looks like we're working on that right now behind the scenes ourselves so Talk a little bit about what some of those tools may look like if you're open to sharing some of that are like what are you got your hands Currently, we're building an AI brain that will know everything and anything about our business. I'm not talking just like a chat GPT that you dump your diary into. This is a thing that's plugged into every aspect of what we're doing on a daily basis. The goal would be that we are revamping our website and that this brain will have an interface on our website so that you, Alex, could go on our website and say, hey, When can i expect the video from one to five main street and it will actually be able to see in real time where that video is in our workflow and spit out an instant answer to you. Say you're on a plane and you need to reschedule an appointment and you don't want to text the office or email the office because you can't remember what the number is or whatever you can but you know the website can go on the website you can talk with the chatbot it can move the appointment for you it can modify things add things to your appointment seamlessly without having to interfere with the speed to efficiency ratio that we're trying to constantly work on. Then with that, we're trying to develop a tool right now where the homeowner, because a pain point, I think you can agree, is maybe not for you because you're a better agent than some, but some agents show up to a house and they're just like, God, I hope this house is ready for photos. How many times have you heard that? So we're trying to develop a tool where the homeowner or the builder or whomever can text a video to this line. The AI is checking that line all the time. And then once that video comes in, they see it, they analyze it, they send notes back to the homeowner on like, hey, house looks great for pictures. I think you might want to remove the shampoo bottles from, you know, the shower and maybe take the toothbrush down. And I saw some pet stuff in the kitchen, you know, remove that and then otherwise looks amazing. See you tomorrow at noon for your photo shoot. You know, thanks for all your hard work. That's kind of tool that then gives the real estate agent peace of mind. Oh, that the house is ready. You know, that's one less thing that the realtor has to do and, you know, be anxious on. It also, without it being a good cop, bad cop, it does make it a little easy. Like if you're an agent and you're banging on your cellar all the time to get their house ready over and over and over, that last final ask can feel like enough is enough type deal. But for you guys to come in and say, here's a couple of things we noticed that we recommend you do. It's just like an extra set of eyes. It's an extra professional opinion. And it shows to the seller and the homeowner that my agent has a really good team that cares about my best interest. Look, I think what differentiates good from great realtors in the marketplace today is the team that they have around them. So whether that's like, I work on a team or whether, but it's the vendor relationships, you know, they make or break a deal all the time. And having that in an agent's corner is nothing but an added Are you the one hands in doing that? Like I am the one for the AI brain, I'm the one kind of leading it. And then I have two AI consultants that I'm working with, that are kind of doing the actual tooling. But you know, the thing I've learned about tech is the guys in the tech world, like they know all the things they speak the language, but they still require the creator person to kind of show them what the tool needs to do. If they're like, I can build any tool, but I need to show them like the that it needs to screw or the nail it needs to hammer in. That's kind of where we are. But every week that I'm working on this, the AI is moving so fast that it gets easier and easier and more frictionless. I see a world by fall that I can potentially be a partner within Lockstep or others that if you were like, hey, Dustin, I'd love to implement some more AI tools here. What can you help us with like i see that like as a part of our real estate offering that were offering a consulting Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. I've talked about this with many folks. I do a monthly mastermind and three times I've done the AI topic. And the first one I ever did was like AI 1.0 and it was understanding how to communicate with AI effectively. And I did it in June of last year. I packed a room and we talked about prompt engineering and how to effectively do it. And at the time it mattered. About four months later, I did another one and it was like tools and implementation. So what tools should you use? And I talked about like taking your day to day and understanding what your traditional day looks like. And then backing into like what tools can help create you to be a more efficient agent. And look, I think a lot of people miss, um, around AI. There's like this concern of what it is and what it isn't and what it's going to do and whose jobs are taking. But the reality is, is like, it's an asset and a partner to make more efficient and do more of what you do better. And so like crush that thing, have a bunch of people here. And then the last one, I just called it 3.0 and I didn't know what the hell I was going to talk about. And I didn't know because it's like every day I'm getting an email from somebody, something about a product, the thing changes, Chad, GBT versus Claude versus Gemini. And it's like, I don't know how to lead something effectively to a room of agents where a large adoption rate in our industry is so low, but also like, It's so easy to understand. And I have a coach who works a lot in AI and he was like, you know, I was talking to him and he's like, I'm like, can you help with this? And can you help me with that? And he's like, just go do it. And I'm like, I don't know how. And he's like, ask the bot, ask the bot. And I'm like, this feels weird. And then, you know, I, I tie it back to like building something and I sat down, I sent a screen grab to a couple of buddies of mine. It was like, yo, I'm about to build this website. And they're like, your ass is not building anything. Who's doing it for you? And I was like, no, no, no, I am. And I'm it's built. And I don't know how I did it. And it did it all in cloud code. And, um, it's legit and it's real. And I need to get a domain and hook it in and post it. It's it can be live. Um, but it's like, Understanding that and what's crazy is so many people don't even know how to log in and correctly utilize it. So knowing that you guys are coming from a place of service and opportunity where it's like your forward thinking behind it, it just keeps you guys ahead of the curve. It keeps you providing value. And look, what it's going to do is it makes at any juncture, if you can figure that backend stuff out, that helps, it ultimately helps you guys be more efficient too. So video becomes, you know, maybe same day at some point or instantaneous photography. I don't know, but it's like, that's Yeah, the speed in which everything is getting faster and better is a hard pace to keep up with. But like what I have to look at is like not how can we get left behind in our current offerings, but in the founder CEO role is like I have to look at what services can we offer to be future proof. And so that's where I'm like, you know, Zillow will probably come out with an orb someday that they throw into a house and it scans photos and videos. But if we're helping you with, like, knowing that the house is ready, if we're helping you with, you know, CRM implementation through AI, if we're helping you with a, you know, HOA database, that's another tool that we're building right now. So that you can ask an AI and it will know the fence height for that neighborhood. So it's like, I want my tools to be so synonymous with your workflow that you're like, why would I go anywhere else? Because they got it figured out. And if you even if we don't have it figured out, you would come to me and say, Hey, Dustin, like, I have this idea. Can we build this together? That kind of shit lights me Well, I think, um, When you start at the base and you go all the way back in this, it's like, the AI tools are really neat, they're really helpful. But when you look at like, what is a frictionless experience all about? It's the servant heart that you talk about being a standard of your workplace and where you're coming from. And if you come from a place of care, like, It never falls out of bounds of what your intentions are. So like, I talked to our agents about this and it's like when something, when you're going to do something that you don't know what the result's going to be. the line, I'm going to do my best carries so much weight because that's all you can ever do. So if it's, I need to get you your earnest money back, or I need to get you out of a deal, I'm going to do my best. I can't speak for what the other side's in control of, but I can do my best and I can control that. And look, I think for you guys, like all those tools are amazing. And it just goes back to like, what is the best version of you guys in your business? And it, it involves those things, but it's so, there's more one-stop shop with a partnership and the connection becomes greater. And look, I'm appreciative of all your time today and everything you've shared because it's like, I feel like I know you better. I certainly have some things to call you about when we get off the Zoom here, but yeah, this is, look, You're a special breed to run a business this way because this is not what a standard experience is across the board. So many people just show up and I refer to it as point and shoot. It's like point and shoot where at the wall, which wall, that wall, when, how. OK, can you try it again? It's like, no, shoot the bad guy, point and shoot. Like, come on, you got to be able to think where the bad guy is. But I'm very appreciative of all that. But this has been a fantastic conversation Uh, I would just strive just kind of hitting on the AI thing. Like if you're a real estate professional or anyone, and you've never played with AI, you've lived in a, in a fear, a place of fear, just just open a free chat to BT account and just start playing with it. You know, one, one of the fun things I did with it early on, and I know I keep going back to parenthood, but it's like, I would actually lay in bed with my two daughters. And at bedtime after we read a book i would ask them hey prompts me like what you want a story to be about give me contacts and then i would have it write a book. That i would then read to them and it was like uniquely theirs and then that became like an every night like hey i wanted to know that's really good or dragons or whatever. And then, yeah, we would do that. Because, I mean, let's be honest, our kids are going to be born or raised in this world of AI. I need them to start understanding, you know, the power of it at an early age so that they can start thinking about how they can harness it. Because I'm sure just like your kids, my kids, or at least one of them, is going to inherit this cocaine level of Yeah. That's amazing. I'm going to try the I'm gonna try to write a book in Claude tonight for my kids just for fun too. So I'll, I love that, but, um, very good stuff. Two things we always wrap with, um, one, where can folks find you? Um, if a realtor wants to utilize your services or if people want to connect with you online, where Yeah, easiest way, arthomephoto.com has all about us, the photos, the videos, Instagram, arthomephoto, same thing. We also have a mobile app, arthomephoto on the app store. You can order photos, see your listings, you know, download your videos right to your phone, post them to Instagram. It's a very seamless, frictionless experience. So yeah, Awesome. Amazing. And we always wrap with one question. And look, the podcast called Action Solves Everything. If you spend any time with me or if you know me or if you see me on social media, you know that I'm somebody that believes like action, in fact, really does solve everything. You had a bad day. Get up and take it head on. And so we always ask our listeners. Just a general question, Yeah, taking action for me means reaching out to one person every six hours. So for me, I talked to two people a day that I wouldn't otherwise normally talk to. I just pick my phone and kind of like Russian roulette. I just give it a little scroll. And then I just call them and check in on them. Could be somebody from college, could be somebody, you know, a business client, could be my mom. And I just check in on them. And that's what I do. And I encourage everyone to just check in on people. You never know what's going on in someone's life and how you could be a light That is... That is unique to any of what anybody has told me as an answer. So I'm very, that is awesome. Um, I may play the game here in a little bit, but this was fantastic. Dustin, thank you so much. Congrats on all of your success, your success. And look, I, I truly mean it. Um, I'm very grateful and appreciative as well as like our lockstep staff is for our partnership with art home photo and how you guys deliver on the frictionless experience. Thank you so much. And thanks for all your share today. This Hey, happy to be here. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for listening to Action Solves Everything. If today's episode pushed you, challenged you, or helped you even take one step forward, send it to someone else who needs that same nudge. We all get better when we grow together. And if you're looking for a partnership that actually believes in coaching, collaboration, accountability, and actually becoming the best version of yourself, shoot me a message. online at all social handles at Alex Montagano. That's A-L-E-X-M-O-N-T-A-G-A-N-O. Remember, success rewards the ones who move. Take action,